A physician must frequently close openings that are formed in blood vessels during various intravascular procedures. The openings are generally formed in order to allow intravascular instruments such as catheters to be inserted into the vessel. Once the procedure is completed, the opening (or openings) in the vessel is closed, often by applying and maintaining pressure on the skin until coagulation occurs. Effectuating such closures is time consuming for the physician and painful to the patient.
Devices for sealing punctured vessel walls with sutures are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,612 describes a device for sealing a percutaneous puncture in a vessel that includes a tubular body with an expandable closure. The body has an ejecting means that forces the closure out of the body into the interior of the blood vessel, whereupon the closure expands to form an engagement surface. A piece of thread is secured to the closure through the body so that the closure can be pulled toward the puncture in the vessel in order to seal the same. No means are provided for accurately positioning the device relative to the puncture in the blood vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,046 describes a spinal cannula device that seals a puncture in the spine created by the cannula. The device includes first and second cannulas, wherein the second cannula is inserted into the first and includes a dural seal with an absorbable suture extending therefrom. The first cannula effectuates the initial spinal puncture. Once the diagnostic or therapeutic procedure is accomplished, the second cannula is inserted into the first cannula until it extends through the puncture. A stylet is inserted into the inner cannula whereupon it pushes the seal and an absorbable suture into the cerebrospinal fluid. The seal absorbs liquid and swells. The cannulae are removed and the physician then pulls on the suture in order to set the dural seal in the spinal puncture. This device would not be effective for sealing an opening in a more flexible structure such as a blood vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,059 describes a plug device for sealing punctures in tissue. The device includes a carrier that has an anchoring portion, a sealing portion and a thin filament connected therebetween. The carrier has an end that is adapted to fit through the puncture. In use, the anchoring portion is ejected through the puncture and is then drawn toward the free end of the carrier. The instrument is manipulated in order to draw the anchoring portion against the puncture on the inner surface of the tissue. To completely seal the puncture, the instrument is further manipulated to draw the sealing portion into engagement with the outer surface of the tissue on the opposite side of the anchoring portion. This is a relatively complicated device requiring a large amount of manipulation and a high degree of skill on the part of the user.